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Show ROOSEVELT IS AFTER WILSON Former President Makes Another An-other Attack Against Weak Policy of Preparedness. Oyster Bay, N. Y April 23. Responding Re-sponding to an inquiry as to tho nation's na-tion's preparedness for possible war, former President Roosevelt today made the following statement: "Men are saying that they stand behind the president or by the president. presi-dent. I wish -o speat for tho men who in the event of war will stand In front of tho president and between be-tween him and the foreign enemy, and who therefore will stand between danger and the men who are behind or beside tho president. "These are the men who will go to the war at once if there is war with Germany cr -with any other great power and who ff.el as I do that wo would far rather go to war unprepared unpre-pared than see our women and children chil-dren murdered with Impunity and the honor ot tho flag stained. But It is a wicked thing that the folly ot our rulers in ooeying me Denests ui the peace-at-airy-price people 'and of the apostles of anti-preparedness should make the sacrifice either useless use-less or else needlessly and appallingly appalling-ly wasteful m blood. Family Will Go. "In the event of such a war my four sons will- go and one and perhaps both of my sons-in-law; I will go myself; my-self; the young kinsfolk and friends of my sons will go; so my words are anntrpn with ovpc nnnn. -It Is of small consequence what happens to us of the older generation; genera-tion; but when I think of the young men my heart grows bitter that their fine and gallant lives should be sacrificed, sac-rificed, not to the nation's need, but to the nation's folly. "I would far rather see them dead than see them flinch from their duty when the honor of our people Is concerned. con-cerned. But It we now go to war these young men and all their follows fol-lows will die by thousands of fever and dysentery and lung trouble in the camps, because we have not prepared in advance, because they and those who would lead and care for them havo not been trained in advance. Failure to Provide. "They will be butchered needlessly needless-ly in battle because we have failed to prepare masses of artillery and machine ma-chine guns and motor trucks and shells and aeroplanes and have failed to provide and train the men who shall manage ail the formidable and dplicate mechanism of war. "Twenty-one months have passed since thegreat war began and during all this time we havo not prepared in even the smallest degree, in order, if possible, to avert war from us, or If It could not be nverted. to wigo it efficiently and successfully. "Tho pacificists and anti-preparedness people have had their will and our rulers at Washington have bowed to them and left us helpless; and with blind faulty they said they did this in the interests of peace. "When will our people lenrn that peace of unpreparedness is the peace of cowardice and Folly and may at any time lead to overwhelming disaster. dis-aster. "Fourteen months ago we notified Germany that is she did whatever since she has done and has continued contin-ued to do, 'we would hold her to a strict accountabilltl. Such language could only be justified if Immediately Immediate-ly ana in thoroughgoing fashion we had bent our energy to the task of 1 reparing and therefore showing that wo meant what we said and that wo possessed both the will and the power pow-er to make our words good. "Such a course would not havo increased, in-creased, it would have greatly diminished di-minished the chances of war. But wo sat supine. Wo took not one step to prepare. Naturally Germany did not treat us seriously; we misled her. "Now, fourteen months afterward, we say that we were serious. If Germany Ger-many now does as we wish, it will, as I have said before, be proof positive posi-tive that Germany would have promptly yielded If fourteen months ago we had so acted that Germany knew wo meant what wo said; and in such case, therefore, our rulers at Washington will have been proved responsible re-sponsible for tho blood of the thousands thou-sands of peaceful men, women and children who have been killed. "If she does not yield we aro then faced with a crisis for which, during twenty-one months, we have failed to prepare in oven the smallest degree. "The failure of our rulers at Washington Wash-ington to prepare during these twenty-one months when even a child ' ought to have seen what was impending, impend-ing, has represented a folly so extreme ex-treme that in its effect it was a crime against the nation." |